careerladder.fyi › Career paths › Stanford University
How people got research & staff jobs at Stanford University
What 47 people did before they joined Stanford University: where they worked, what they studied, which role they came in through, and how long it took.
47
people in our data got there
71%
had a graduate degree first (of those listing one)
4
typical years since first job
- The most common step right before: from other companies (57%).
- The most common way in was Research (66% joined in that kind of role).
- Of those who list their education, 71% had a graduate degree before arriving and 42% a PhD.
- The typical person arrived about 4 years after their first job.
How Stanford University compares
- 42% had a PhD, well above the 20% across other universities, the highest of the 3 in our data.
- 71% had a graduate degree, well above the 52% across other universities, the highest of the 3 in our data.
- 11% came straight from Big Tech, above the <1% across other universities, the highest of the 4 in our data.
Among people who list their education; places with at least 10 such people.
Show as a table
| People listing education | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Stanford University (this page) | 24 | 42% |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 25 | 24% |
| Columbia University | 22 | 18% |
Show as a table
| Median years | ||
|---|---|---|
| Columbia University | 5 yrs | |
| Stanford University (this page) | 4 yrs | |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 4 yrs | |
| University of California, Berkeley | 3 yrs |
Which role they joined in
Kinds of role with fewer than 5 people are combined into "All other roles".
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Research | 31 | 66% |
| All other roles | 16 | 34% |
What they did right before
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| From other companies | 27 | 57% |
| Publishing research | 8 | 17% |
| From Big Tech | 5 | 11% |
| Other | 7 | 15% |
Education
Among the 24 of 47 people who list their education.
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor's | 7 | 29% |
| Master's | 7 | 29% |
| PhD | 10 | 42% |
A person can count under more than one school.
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| MIT | 6 | 13% |
How much experience they had
Among the 43 of 47 people with an earlier job listed.
Show as a table
| People | Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1 year | 3 | 7% |
| 1-3 years | 11 | 26% |
| 3-5 years | 9 | 21% |
| 5-8 years | 12 | 28% |
| 8-12 years | 5 | 12% |
| 12+ years | 3 | 7% |
Where would your path lead?
Paste your LinkedIn or resume and see the ladders people like you climbed to Stanford University, and how each step changes your chances.
Plan my path to Stanford University →
Paste your LinkedIn or resume and see the ladders people like you climbed to Stanford University, and how each step changes your chances.
Plan my path to Stanford University →
Related
How these numbers are made. From 3k+ public career histories collected for careerladder.fyi (dated jobs, degrees and publications). The collection was built around particular employers, so people who reached well-known tech, AI and finance employers are over-represented: read shares as "among people in this dataset", not as hiring odds. Names are shown only when at least 5 people are behind them; smaller groups are combined into "Other". No individual profile is shown. Updated November 2026.